Alternia Comics

*****

"Guthrie's pretty messed up, cap'n," said the boarding-party leader. "Top of his head, and most of 'is face, shoulders, and chest got scalded black. Doc ain't sure how much he can save."

"Is Sledmeir's ship intact?"

"Aye, mostly. One escape glider's gone, but the grapples slowed it down enough that it didn't take TOO much damage from the collision."

"Mostly. I saw the cockpit. You're telling me we can salvage that?"

"Well, it seems to be isolated from the rest of the ship. Like the whole thing was made to be a trap for boarders."

"Wait. What are you telling me?"

"The ship has some sort of secondary control. It didn't crash because of the cockpit fire." The mechanic looked directly at his superior. "Sleidmir brought it down on purpose."

"How could he do that? He was off the vessel when it landed, right?"

The mechanic stratched his head and shrugged. "Robotic ship? I'm not sure, cap'n. Maybe it had a 'landing' automation, or something. Sledmeir's kind of a genius, you know ... he has all kinds of things on that ship I don't understand."

Captain Crash Jagdwinter scratched his chin. He knew the ship was special. His employer wouldn't have asked for it intact if it weren't. Maybe this had something to do with it. "The job is to bring in this ship AND its captain. Take a skeleton crew and get it up and running. See if you can figure out some of Sledmeir's inventions while you're at it. Follow us when you can- we'll leave the flares."

"Yes sir."

With that, Captain Jagdwinter strode across the deck of his ship, the Huntress Snowcloud, to the helm. "Helmsman, as soon as the mechanic has his crew aboard Sledmeir's vessel, stet a course west."

"Aye, aye, Cap'n! West it is!"

Captain Jagdwinter wished he could spare a trip back to Prussia to have a chat with old Bismarck about this ship and why he cared so much about it.

*****

Templeton thought he had at least a week before the pirates would get to him. Markenbourg was back along the path the airship had taken by 20 miles and not known for its airship yards. By the time they'd escaped, other towns had been easier to get to, but he was sure to be found if he tried for easy, or for their intended flight plan.

All that said, he still needed to get himself a craft, and fast. There was always a chance that someone would guess that he'd turned the glider south, and that would make everything worse. Leaving Elson in the hospital would be the worst case scenario, but at least the castle supplied it with serious protection.

The best way to keep away from Air Pirates would be on the ground, especially here among all the trees. At the same time, though, he would need a way to take to the skies if they were spotted. Being on the ground end of an air-to-ground bombardment was not something Templeton enjoyed.

Then he had a brainstorm. Air was visible, ground was vulnerable, but underground or undersea would be neither. Now, underground would take very strong materials and it would be twice as difficult to come up for air, but he was already planning to work on a boat.

Even better might be if he could create a ship that could make good use of other ships as cover and camouflage - that would allow him to remain close enough to the surface for gas exchange.

Templeton got up off the stool, pulled a pencil off of his tool glove, and went to find some paper. This was going to take a lot of drawing before it was finished.

"Charles! How much copper wire do you have?"

*****